Abigale looked over at Simone, the young blonde deep in thought as she worked away in the office across the room, and beamed with pride. She'd finally done it.
Well, more accurately, they'd done it. The small office wasn't much, but the name on the door, Murray and Associates was all theirs. One day it would be Murray, Brassard and Associates, but until Simone finished her law degree, Abigale would have to remain the sole name on the door.
But that was only a matter of time, Simone wasn't a stereotypical blonde by any means. She was smart, driven and a serious person all around. She'd been going to night school while they had both been working at Donaldson, Gregson and Connolly, and Abigale had no doubt she'd easily pass the bar once she graduated.
Of course in the meantime, she was the perfect law clerk, keeping everything in order and making sure nothing was filed late.
The thought of her old firm brought a frown to her face. Donaldson, Gregson and Connolly was internally referred to as DGC but most of the female clerks and lawyers referred to it as Don't Get Cocky as the glass ceiling in the place was just above their desks.
To be honest, she wasn't sure how the firm hadn't gone under from an avalanche of sexual harassment lawsuits from the way they treated many of the female personal assistants and other staff. Though none of them seemed to complain and there was never any move made against the female clerks and lawyers as far as Abigale could tell.
Simone had relayed the same experience when they had first started to talk about leaving DGC. While neither had any direct issue to file a complaint about, they both felt the crushing pressure of the glass ceiling that they knew they would never break.
A reminder sounded and broke Abigale's train of thought as Simone looked up from her computer and frowned, "Abigale, do we really have to keep this client?" Simone called across the conference table that sat between their two offices.
Abigale let out a sigh, she knew what Simone meant, but he was the only client that she'd been able to bring over from DGC. The retainer he was giving their small firm each month paid for, well, everything. And it wasn't like he required a lot of time, he currently had no active legal matters underway and all he expected was a one-hour meeting every two weeks.
"You know the answer to that already Simone, he pays a generous retainer and I checked, he hasn't had a legal matter beyond some simple power of attorney and land transfers for over a decade with DGC. And so what if he's a little... odd."
"Odd? He gives me the heebie-jeebies every time he walks into the room." Simone replied giving a slightly exaggerated shutter as she did so.
"Yeah well, get over it. Maybe once we have some other paying clients we can talk about it again. But for now, suck it up and put on a smile."
Simone rolled her eyes and then plastered on a big fake smile, "Oh, you mean like this? *tee-hee*" she said as she tilted her head to the side and put her index finger on her cheek.
Abigale only just managed to contain the burst of laughter but failed to do so with the snort the followed.
It was an in-joke they'd started shortly after they'd met at DGC, the female staff there were divided into two groups really. The first group, made up of clerks and lawyers, were as you would expect, professional, hardworking people that took their jobs seriously. The second group, made up of the support staff and office workers, seemed to all be bottle blonde bimbos with bright smiles plastered across their faces at all times.
It was this second group that got all of the obvious sexual harassment but never file a complaint about it.
Abigale had tried to talk to one of them... once, only to find the vapid airhead impossible to get through to. Though strangely enough, when any of them were given a task to do, they completed it quickly and competently. Then they'd end up going right back to giggling with the others about fashion or makeup or some other nonsense.
After that Abigale had kept her distance, wanting nothing to do with them as she worked hard to get ahead. Of course, it hadn't taken her long to realize the DGC would never promote her from junior counsel. As soon as she did she started planning her "escape" plan.
It had been harder than she thought, even with Simone's considerable help it was hard to start up a new law firm. She'd spent months tenderly approaching several of the clients she was working on, never saying outright that she was leaving, but trying to find a few that might consider following her.
Only Raymond Quandary had shown any interest, but after looking at his account, he was more than enough.
And so, after wining and dining him for a few weeks, on DGC's expense account of course, she had her first client.
Two weeks later, she'd found their small office a few blocks away from DGC where the rent was cheaper. Simone and her had spent a week setting up the office after they'd both turned in their resignation letters, and so here they were, their first client meeting since opening their door.
A few minutes before the top of the hour, said door swung open and in walked Raymond Quandary. He was in his late forties, a little overweight and of average height, well dressed, balding but with short cropped hair as he was clearly not trying to hide it. He projected confidence with every step he took and every movement he made.
"Good morning ladies, how are my two favourite lawyers doing today?" he said with a warm smile. Most, at first glance, would have found the smile easy going and sincere, but after having seen it dozens of times, Abigale found it unsettling at best.
There was something off about it, nothing she could quite put her finger on, but something that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She knew Simone felt the same way but just as she'd joked earlier, she'd put on a smile so Abigale did the same as the two of them stepped out of their offices and into the middle of their space where the conference table was.
The meeting was simple enough, he had a few land transfers for them to do, he was selling one property and purchasing two others. Nothing Abigale was needed for and Simone took down all the details she would need to get the paperwork in order.
When he left, they both looked at each other and let out a sigh of relief, a palpable weight lifted from their shoulders with his presence gone.
* * *
Abigale stepped out of her office and looked over to Simone, a stack of papers on her desk with a dozen little yellow stickies protruding from them.
"Is that Raymond's paperwork all set?" she asked. Simone had spent the last two weeks working on it and now all that was required was his signature.
"Yeah..." Simone responded with another eye roll, "Can't we..."
"Not another word Simone. You know we can't, not yet at least." Abigale cut Simone off before she could complete the sentence and gave her a finger wag of admonishment.
"You're going to meet a prospective client?" Simone replied, raising a hopeful eyebrow.
"Yes, but don't get your hopes up quite yet. It would take a dozen of these kinds of clients to replace Raymond." Abigale didn't like having to skip out on the meeting with Raymond, well actually she did, but it still wasn't good to blow off their only paying client on their second meeting. But the prospective client had been quite insistent that this was the only time he had available and so she'd agreed.
"Yeah, but we have to start somewhere, right?"
Abigale nodded and headed to the door just as it opened and Raymond stepped through, she put on her best smile once more, "Hello Raymond, how are you today?"
"Abigale! Very good, on your way out to a meeting?" Raymond replied with the same off-putting smile he always wore.
